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Full text of "ERIC ED494008: Psychosemantics of Management Strategy Notions by Comprehensive School Principals and Vice Principals"

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PSYCHOSEMANTICS OF MANAGEMENT STRATEGY NOTIONS BY 
COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND VICE PRINCIPALS 



Gintaras Saparnis, Diana Saparniene 
Siauliai University, Lithuania 



INTRODUCTION 

From the methodological point of view the research is based on the teaching of the empirical social research about 
qualitative and quantitative research and the principle of their coordination that is triangulation (Charles, 1999; 
Mayring, 1988; Kardelis, 1997; Lamnek, 1993; Merkys, 1999). 

The conceptual basis of the research consists of the attempt of the coordination (congruence) of different theoretical 
traditions (in fact today they are already called classical). Here the following is meant: 1) humanistic psychology, 2) the 
teaching of social psychology about authoritarian personality and authoritarian social relations, 3) the theory of 
symbolic interactionism (Rogers, 1969; Maslow, 1971; Adorno, 1969; Oesterreich, 1974; Blumer, 1969). 

Moreover, the research of management (including education management) and of organizational behaviour 
(Juceviciene, 1996; Jucevicius, 1996; Zelvys, 1999; Targamadze, 1996 et al) makes an important area of the theoretical 
context of the research. Nevertheless, it is necessary to state that in the sense of diagnostic research 
(Management diagno st ik (Sarges, 1995)) in the country we have not encountered at least as a phenomenon of systematic 
professional research. The lack of the research of the respective character is an important aspect of the scientific 
problematicity of our research. 

Quite an important role grounding the research theoretically and interpreting the data has been played by such 
branch of psychology as psychosemantics. One of its most important interests is to investigate what subjective 
meanings the individuals and social groups tend to give to verbal (lexical) irritants. Speech (words and their 
combinations) are not, vividly speaking, only an “object per se ” but reflects both individual psychical and sociocultural 
reality. From the history of social research it is known that psychosemantic material - the associative reaction of the 
subjects to verbal irritants - has recommended itself as a reliable empirical referent. Particularly in our research the role 
of a word-irritant has been played by the stimuli material formed on the basis of the lexical combination “management 
development”. 

The object of the research is the process of management in comprehensive school. 

The aim of the research is to reveal the psychosemantics of the opinion of school principals and vice principals on 
the issues of the development of school management. From the viewpoint of the method it has been attempted to 
achieve this aim using non-standardized questionnaire of open type and combining the methods of qualitative and 
quantitative content analysis. 

In principle the problem of any scientific research may be defined by a question because a question is a logical form 
of a scientific problem (Merkys 1995). Scientific problematicity of our research is defined by the series of concrete 
questions, the relevant answer to which is not known by sciences of education or management today. The questions are 
following: 

a) what is the law of rating of subjective psychosemantic categories reflecting strategy notions of school principals 
and vice principals? 

b) what is the character of the taxonomy of the psychosemantic categories of aforementioned “topics” empirically 
resultant from the rating data? 

c) what is the internal structure of empirically detected psychosemantic formations reflecting actual management 

notions and expectations? 

The following methods of the research have been used - the analysis of literary sources, qualitative and quantitative 
content analysis, statistical data processing (correlative analysis, cluster analysis, factor analysis). 

THE RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH AND THEIR DISCUSSION. In this part of the article the results of the 
research of school managers’ answers to the question “Dear Manager, you certainly know in which direction school 
management should be turned. Could you please write your opinion on the issues of school management 
improvement” 1 . 187 questioned school principals 2 reacted to the question about management improvement with 573 



1 In total 14 closed-type questions related to demographical variables, 6 open-type questions about the school principals’ mistakes made in the 
communication with school community members (pupils, teachers, vice principals or principals, technical staff employees, pupils’ parents) and 
education department employees have been presented in the questionnaire. At the end of the questionnaire the managers were asked to write their 
opinion and suggestions how to improve school management. In the present article it is further limited to these results which have been obtained 
analyzing the answers of the respondents namely to the latter question (Saparnis, Merkys, 2000; Merkys, Saparnis 20004; Saparnis, Saparniene, 
2005). 

2 83 school principals and 104 vice principals from Siauliai County of the Republic of Lithuania (Siauliai city, Siauliai, Akmene, Pakruojis, Kelme, 
Radviliskis, and Joniskis districts) Taurage town and district, Jurbarkas town, Kaunas city, Klaipeda city, and Panevezys city have been questioned. 




statements (sentences) which have been generalized into 39 categories. Empirically detected rating of frequencies of 
category mentioning is presented in Table 1 . 

Table 1 

Rating of the categories of managerial notions and expectations of managers 



Category 


Noted 

frequency 


Percentage 


Group number by 
a 5 cluster model 


Implementation of sociality and partnership on all levels 


47 


25% 


1 


Intention to improve 


41 


22% 


1 


To implement innovations more decisively 


33 


18% 


2 


To solve provision problems 


31 


17% 


2 


Special preparation of principals 


27 


14% 


2 


To implement teamwork 


26 


14% 


2 


To develop democracy and self-government 


25 


13% 


2 


To encourage sharing of experience 


24 


13% 


2 


To have a vision and performance programme 


22 


12% 


3 


To foster school microclimate 


21 


11% 


3 


Less “red-tape” 


21 


11% 


3 


To expand school autonomy 


20 


11% 


3 


To improve inspection system 


18 


10% 


3 


To implement analysis and changes, and future projection 


18 


10% 


3 


To more courageously delegate authorization and responsibility 


16 


9% 


3 


Continuous learning of managers 


15 


8% 


3 


To improve contents of education 


13 


7% 


3 


To increase salary for managerial work 


11 


6% 


4 


To leave only administrational functions to the managers 


10 


5% 


4 


Clear directives 


10 


5% 


4 


To evaluate school according to education results 


10 


5% 


4 


To free managers from economical problems 


9 


5% 


4 


To liquidate theoretical teaching, to implement practical teaching 


9 


5% 


4 


To computerize school management 


9 


5% 


4 


Open school in the open society 


8 


4% 


4 


To more courageously criticize not reasonable decisions of the Ministry of 


8 


4% 


4 


To increase operating personnel 


6 


3% 


5 


To implement the system of material motivation 


6 


3% 


5 


To implement managers’ assessment 


5 


3% 


5 


To improve managers’ selection 


5 


3% 


5 


More stability 


5 


3% 


5 


More paedocentrism 


5 


3% 


5 


Precise definition of managerial functions, division of influence spheres 


4 


2% 


5 


More foreign experience 


4 


2% 


5 


More anthropocentrism 


3 


2% 


5 


To implement manager rotation 


3 


2% 


5 


School manager must have lessons 


2 


1% 


5 


To implement auditing 


1 


0.5% 


5 


To balance the proportion of pupil number and staff 


1 


0.5% 


5 



Referring to the scheme of statistical data processing set in the present research we have performed cluster analysis 
of categories and formed their taxonomy. The configuration of a computer made dendrogram and the data of the 
standardized cluster distance scale (see Picture 1) show that it is the most expedient to refer to the 5 cluster model. That 
means that the data of category rating statistically reasonably may be classified to five or three homogeneous groups. It 
is symptomatic that one of the groups is composed of only two categories, surpassing all the rest categories by the 
achieved frequency of mentioning. 





1 cluster high frequency of 

category mentioning. 

2,3 clusters middle frequency 

of category mentioning. 

4,5 clusters low frequency of 
category mentioning. 

More paedocentrism 
To improve managers’ selection 
To implement managers’ assessment 
More stability 

Precise definition of managerial functions, division of influence spheres 

More foreign experience 
To increase operating personnel 
To implement the system of material motivation 
To implement auditing 
To balance the proportion of pupil number and staff 

More anthropocentrism 
To implement manager rotation 
School manager must have lessons 
Clear directives 

To evaluate school according to education results 
To increase salary for managerial work 
To computerize school management 
To liquidate theoretical teaching, to implement practical teaching 
To free managers from economical problems 
To leave only administrational functions to the managers 
Open school in the open society 
To more courageously criticize not reasonable decisions of the ministry 
Implementation of sociality and partnership on all levels 

Intention to improve 
To develop democracy and self-government 
To encourage sharing of experience 
To implement teamwork 
The organization of special preparation of managers 
To solve provision problems 
To implement innovations more decisively 
Continuous learning of managers 
To more courageously delegate authorization and responsibility 

To improve contents of education 
To improve inspection system 
To implement analysis and changes and future projection 

To expand school autonomy 
To foster school microclimate 
Less “red-tape 

To have a vision and performance programme 



Standardized cluster distance scale 

0 5 10 25 

1 4 1 u 1 




Picture 1. Dendrogram of managerial notions and expectations of school managers 



Qualitative interpretation of taxonomy’s results according to the 5 clusters model 



Group number in the dendrogram 

Group 1 

Group 2 

Group 3 

Group 4 

Group 5 



The interpretation of the 5 group (cluster) model 

highest rating 
high rating 
middle higher rating 
middle rating 
low rating 






We suppose that the discovered law of category rating and category taxonomy from the viewpoint of interpretation 
is eloquent enough and witnesses several concrete tendencies. 

1. From the point of view of contents purely management topics are dominating, while psychological topics become 
peripherical. Pedagogical content is unless directly reflected by the categories “More anthropocentrism” , “ More 
paedocentrism”, the semantics of which is very close. Managerial direction of category contents we suppose was 
naturally conditioned by the content of questionnaire item itself. Nevertheless, if the peripherical character of 
psychological topics is natural, so a rather low percentage (15%) of pedagogical (educational) plane categories is rather 
unexpected. We would like to make a deeper reflection about this factually stated tendency. 

It is universally known that management is not absolutely some object for itself. The object of management is a 
particular institution, organization, and the aim of management is the ensuring of the quality of organizational functions 
(social services in the most general sense). Every organization is specific both from the viewpoint of the organizational 
structure, its aims and performance. This specifics distinguishes it from other organizations, e.g., hospital from 
supermarket or post department. Therefore, management if we supposedly speak not about abstract theoretical textbook 
but about a real and live management process, is and should be concrete, penetrated by the contents and topics of the 
performance of a particular institution. If during analogous management study we would interview, e.g., head doctors of 
hospitals or principals of bank affiliates, it is quite likely that in doctors’ responses apart from other issues medical 
topics would be reflected, while the bankers’ responses would reflect the topics of finances and banking. If we talk 
about management as technological theory, this technology should be technologically valid, if we talk about 
professional psychosemantics of managers, so vividly speaking it should be penetrated by the “ethnography” of a 
concrete organization. So we were surprised by low percentage of categories of purely educational content. 

We divided all 39 categories into three groups: 1) categories not reflecting educational topics at all; 2) categories 
partially reflecting educational topics; 3) categories directly reflecting educational topics. Typical examples of the first 
group: “To have a vision and performance programme “To implement auditing”. The second group consists of 
categories where school topics are mentioned formally, however, is not more deeply oriented towards the reflection of 
school functions. Typical example is “To expand school autonomy”. The expansion of autonomy is a universal 
procedure of organizational management, important for bank affiliate, hospital and police office. The semantics of this 
category does not yet reflect the educational topics directly. Directly educational topics are reflected in categories “To 
develop contents of education”, “To liquidate theoretical teaching, to implement practical teaching”, “ School manager 
must have lessons”. 

The contents of the first two groups is oriented towards the realization of universal managerial procedure, therefore, 
these categories in diagnostic sense reflects the orientation of managers towards formal administration. Meanwhile, the 
third distinguished group of categories shows the orientation of managers towards the managerial reflection of 
categories characteristic only to school (as an organization). The contents and rating of our formed categories witness 
that the categories of the third group (type) are peripherical. It is shown by: a) their extremely low relative extent in a 
general “mass” of categories, b) very low frequentative rating of mentioning of these categories. 

Here we may state a concrete scientific fact. The fact is that in professional psychosemantic structure of school 
managers (on the issues of development of school management) formal principle of administration overweighs, 
meanwhile educational pedagogical principle reflecting the mission of school as an organization is relatively 
peripherical. 

We suppose that it is expedient to develop the interpretation of this fact in several alternative directions. 

1.1 hypothesis. The orientation of school managers towards the realization of formal administration procedures 
show their management professionality, ability to think in categories of management science and practice, to tear 
themselves away from routine and concreteness, also the preparedness to solve problems not directly but through 
particular management procedures and mechanisms. 

1.2 hypothesis. The model of school management is developing, one of essential features of which is alienation of 
managers, digression from functions and strategic aims of school as a social organization, manifesting by inclination 
towards formal administration partially separated from the contents of school performance. 

1.3 hypothesis. In the population of school managers two types of strategic thinking and acting exist. Managers 
belonging to the first type tend to give priority to formal universal management procedures and techniques. In fact they 
are more interested by the questions: how, by which means, in which ways, by which procedures and by which 
mechanisms school should be managed? How to seek more effective management? Managers belonging to the second 
type are more oriented towards questions what is to be achieved in school management, what and which is strategic aim 
of school management, resulting from specific aims and functions of school as an organization. The first type reflects 
formal - abstract management approach, and the second type concrete - contentual management approach. Moreover, it 
is symptomatic that in a sense of frequency the overweighting of the first mentioned type is evident, in other words, of 
formal - abstract management approach. 

To further develop and finally approve, to reject or correct these hypotheses the following research is needed. They 
would help to reveal managerial attitudes and orientations of the managers, to distinguish and elaborate dominating 
types of management. Finally, such research would presumably reveal practical presumptions how to make 




management more effective. Firstly, this is because every hypothetically mentioned management type has its 
advantages and disadvantages. 

2. It is symptomatic that the survey has also revealed certain collisions of strategic management notions and 
approaches. It is testified by the categories of essentially similar content but different valency: “ To leave only 
administrational functions to the managers ” and “ School managers must have lessons”; “To free managers from 
economical problems”. The suggestion that the managers have at least a few lessons and they are made free from 
economical problems supposedly refers to the ideal of pedagogically oriented school manager. Such manager tends to 
directly go into educational problems and education is his main priority. The management approach which we have 
defined as concrete - contentual seems closer to such type of manager. Meanwhile, the suggestion that only 
administrative functions are left to school manages witnesses a totally opposite ideal of a school manager and a 
different management approach. Such manager does not seem to want to directly go into educational pedagogical topics 
and educational issues, but would rather deal with administration. There is no greater doubt that the mentioned ideal of 
a manager corresponds to greater extent to our characterized type of formal - abstract management approach. 

As it has been already mentioned in the present section, it is problematic to unambiguously evaluate the stated 
managers’ inclination towards administration (see formulations of hypotheses 1.1 - 1.3). Nevertheless, the inclination 
towards formal administration potentially expresses risk, in particular a digression of a manager from the most 
important school mission i.e. education of pupils. It is especially important for organizations the direct impact object of 
which is a person, e.g. for institutions of education, treatment, or religion. In this sense we could appeal to literary 
analogy, in particular to V. Mykolaitis-Putinas novel “Altoriu seselyje” (In the Shadows of the Altars), where two 
different types of provost emerge: “ pastor ” and “farmer”. The analogy with our distinguished types of school manager, 
i.e., “ pedagogue ” and “ administrator ” here is evident enough. 

3. Further, paying attention to the content of categories that reached high rating, again quite eloquent tendency 
manifests itself. It should be remembered that the survey chronologically coincided with the essential decrease of 
economical situation in the country. It has also been inevitably reflected in the area of school financing and material 
provision. In this sense in the anonymous questionnaire on the issues of school management improvement absolutely 
reasonably it was possible to expect a negative reaction of school managers, and the attitude which would reflect the 
reduction of management problems to the issues of financing and material provision. The hypothetic presumption that 
in the critical society of limited resources school managers would relate the visions of management improvement to the 
issue of financing has not been proved. From 39 categories only two reflect the issues of material provision: “To solve 
provision problems” (rating of mentioning is 17%), “To increase salary for managerial work ” (6%). 

It is evident that in the psychosemantic structure of managers concerning this issue spiritual but not material 
principle is dominating. The semantics of the categories that reached the highest rating of mentioning reflects the 
contents of such terms of management science and practice as democracy, implementation of innovations, qualification 
development and learning, and partnership. The allusion of these terms to modern management paradigms raises no 
doubt. It means that projecting managerial visions school managers think in the categories of concepts of organizational 
culture, learning organization, and overall quality management. In general it witnesses quite high professional culture of 
school managers. 

Further we have looked for the regularities of category structure that are usually defined using the measures of 
statistical connection and contingency. For this particular aim we have used factor analysis having eliminated the 
categories that statistically “destroy” the model of factor analysis. 



Table 3 



The Results of Factor Analysis 



Factor 

number 


Names of categories 


Values of factor weights 


FI 


To more courageously delegate authorization and responsibility 


0.67 


To foster school microclimate 


0.66 


To develop democracy and self-government 


0.60 


To implement teamwork 


0.53 


Implementation of sociality and partnership on all levels 


0.43 


F2 


To have a vision and performance programme 


0.76 


To implement innovations more decisively 


0.69 


To implement analysis and changes and future projection 


0.67 


F3 


To improve inspection system 


0.79 


Less “red-tape” 


0.68 


To expand school autonomy 


0.54 


F4 


To encourage sharing of experience 


0.78 


Continuous learning of managers 


0.58 


Special preparation of principals 


0.51 





F5 


Intention to improve 


0.66 


F6 


To improve contents of education 


0.77 


To solve provision problems 


0.63 



Note. Computer extracted factors explain 56,0 % of the dispersion of all variables. 



17 primary variables (categories) have been generalized in a 6 factor model (see Table 3). Formally evaluating the 
found factor model is not especially attractive because factor 5 consists of only one variable. Nevertheless in the 
remaining factors the variables have grouped very meaningfully from the viewpoint of interpretation, moreover, the 
attention should be paid to quite high correlation coefficients of variables and a factor (0.43 < r < 0.79). These two 
circumstances witness the relevance of categories in the sense of construct validity theory. 

Quite suggestive is the interpretation of factor F4: this is a factor reflecting the dimension of qualification. F3 factor 
reflects the dimension of control optimization and autonomy. F2 factor may be defined as a factor of strategy and 
innovations. The first (FI) factor is (and according to the mathematical model should be) statistically the strongest, it 
unites five variables and explains 15% of the dispersion. From the viewpoint of interpretation this factor reflects the 
principles of democracy and partnership in management. In the diagnostic sense it shows that in the studied 
psychosemantic structure of managerial notions of school managers the mentioned things take significant place. 

CONCLUSIONS 

1 . The semantics of the categories that reached the highest rating of mentioning reflects the content of such terms of 
management science and practice as democracy, implementation of innovations, qualification development and 
learning, and partnership. The allusion of these terms to modern management paradigms raises no doubt. It means that 
projecting managerial visions school managers think in the categories of management concepts of organizational 
culture, learning organization, and overall quality. In general it witnesses quite high professional culture of school 
managers. 

2. The generalized data of the research allows stating a concrete scientific fact: in professional psychosemantic 
structure of school managers (on the issues of development of school management) formal principle of administration 
overweighs, meanwhile educational pedagogical principle reflecting the mission of school as an organization is 
relatively peripherical. 

3. The research has also revealed certain collisions of strategic management notions and approaches. It is testified 
by the categories of essentially similar content but different valency: “ To leave only administrational functions to the 
managers ” and “ School manager must have lessons”; “ To free managers from economical problems ”. The suggestion 
that the managers have at least a few lessons and they are made free from economical problems supposedly refers to the 
ideal of pedagogically oriented school manager. Such manager tends to directly go into educational problems and 
education is his main priority. Meanwhile, the suggestion that only administrative functions are left to school manages 
witnesses a totally opposite ideal of a school manager and a different management approach. Such manager does not 
seem to directly go into educational pedagogical topics and educational issues, but would rather deal with 
administration. These opinions of different valency may be explained by our distinguished types of management 
approach: concrete - contentual and formal - abstract. 

4. The hypothetic presumption that in the critical society of limited resources school managers would relate the 
visions of management improvement to the issue of financing has not been proved. From 39 categories only two reflect 
the issues of material provision: “ To solve provision problems ” (rating of mentioning is 17%), “To increase salary for 
managerial work” (6%). It is evident that in the psychosemantic structure of managers concerning this issue spiritual 
but not material principle is dominating. 

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